Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Truck Series Finale Gets Big TV Ratings

Here is the official scoop from the folks at SPEED:

The dramatic NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series finale on SPEED peaked at more than one million households and put an exclamation point on the most-watched season since the series moved to the network in 2003.

The race at Homestead-Miami Speedway scored a Nielsen Household Rating of .96, up 146 percent from last year’s .39. The broadcast peaked at a 1.39 and marked the highest year-to-year average rating increase of the season.

“What a way to finish,” said SPEED President Hunter Nickell. “The last lap of the last event and we still weren't sure who the champion was going to be. Johnny Benson and Ron Hornaday put on an awesome show for the fans."

The 2008 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season on SPEED was the highest rated ever, averaging a .80 rating. On the year, 19 of the 22 races on SPEED saw year-to-year Nielsen Ratings increases, 15 in double digits.

SPEED will air highlights from the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship Banquet on Dec. 8 at 8 p.m. ET.

Update: The TV ratings for the ABC Sprint Cup Series Homestead race declined by slightly over 5% compared to last season. 2007 was the first year for ABC back in NASCAR TV.

Nice job by SPEED this season, but a tough road for the ESPN and ABC group. Feel free to leave comments on these topics below.

Not surprised by the news. Have been following the ratings all season. This is great for the truck series. The truck races are a pleasure to watch and ESPN can not hold a candle to the coverage that SPEED as given us this year.

Thanks SPEED for all your hard work again this season on providing NASCAR coverage for us.

If the network coverage was as good as that on SPEED, I would not need HotPass.

It's about time the trucks get the credit that they deserve. SPEED does a great job , not only with the trucks, but with all the practice nad qualifying shows. Best crew of all the networks. THANKS Speed for a great job all year long.

Great news for Speed. Given that the ratings continue to climb, wouldn't the obvious decision be to increase the amount of airtime the series gets, especially during the week? When Speed landed the truck series contract in 2003, they said that it was going to be their premiere property. Why not give it better treatment?

Don't get me wrong, the coverage they have is superb in quality. I just wish we had more.

Part of the appeal of the Truck Series is that it is not over-hyped. Race fans know where to go to see a good race, and that is on SPEEDTV. The half-hour pre-race show is fast-paced, upbeat, and has all the important information about the upcoming race. Great TV crew...I hope they all return next year and that the Truck Series will do as well or better with their new series sponsor.

I can definitely understand how Speed saw a dramatic increase in viewership because the truck series is far and away the most exciting series to watch and all season long the points kept going back and forth between two great drivers that are old time great drivers and they and the great broadcast team made watching this series fun to watch and can also understand why the last half of the coup series saw a decl;ine because frankly it was a snoozer with Jerry Punch as the lead play by play announcer. I think if Allen Bestwick had been the lead announcer and more of the races starting around 1:00 Eastern, ABC/ESPN more than likely would have seen an increase in their viewers instead of a decline.

Excellent news! Congrats to the whole Speed team!! They do a great job week in & week out, not with gimmicks - just giving us the racing as it happens.Speed has shown give the fans a good product & we will watch.

I expect next year will be better still, with Mr. Lemonis getting the word out better than NASCAR does. A fan responsive network & series sponsor = more growth.

I'm glad to hear the trucks are doing well on tv. I do not follow them, but do read the results of every race.

What I cannot understand is that in this site and others, I read that it is the best series, and yet they barely got some 30,000 at Homestead. If it is the best of the 3 series, why wasn't the place packed?